port upgrad outdated fails with error: /opt/local/bin/a2p is being used by the active perl5.8 port.

[macports.org@…]

Upgrading failed at perl 5.12:

# port upgrade outdated
--->  Fetching pkgconfig
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for pkgconfig
--->  Extracting pkgconfig
--->  Applying patches to pkgconfig
--->  Configuring pkgconfig
--->  Building pkgconfig
--->  Staging pkgconfig into destroot
--->  Installing pkgconfig @0.25_2
--->  Deactivating pkgconfig @0.25_1
--->  Activating pkgconfig @0.25_2
--->  Cleaning pkgconfig
--->  Fetching perl5.12
--->  Attempting to fetch perl-5.12.3.tar.bz2 from http://lil.fr.distfiles.macports.org/perl5.12
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for perl5.12
--->  Extracting perl5.12
--->  Applying patches to perl5.12
--->  Configuring perl5.12
--->  Building perl5.12
--->  Staging perl5.12 into destroot
--->  Installing perl5.12 @5.12.3_1
--->  Activating perl5.12 @5.12.3_1
--->  Cleaning perl5.12
--->  Computing dependencies for perl5
--->  Fetching perl5
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for perl5
--->  Extracting perl5
--->  Configuring perl5
--->  Building perl5
--->  Staging perl5 into destroot
--->  Computing dependencies for perl5
--->  Installing perl5 @5.12.3_1+perl5_12
--->  Deactivating perl5 @5.8.9_0
--->  Activating perl5 @5.12.3_1+perl5_12
Error: Target org.macports.activate returned: Image error: /opt/local/bin/a2p is being used by the active perl5.8 port.  Please deactivate this port first, or use 'port -f activate perl5' to force the activation.
Log for perl5 is at: /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_lang_perl5/main.log
--->  Computing dependencies for p5-xml-parser
--->  Dependencies to be installed: perl5
--->  Activating perl5 @5.12.3_1+perl5_12
Error: Target org.macports.activate returned: Image error: /opt/local/bin/a2p is being used by the active perl5.8 port.  Please deactivate this port first, or use 'port -f activate perl5' to force the activation.
Error: Failed to install perl5
Log for perl5 is at: /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_lang_perl5/main.log
Error: The following dependencies were not installed: perl5
Error: Unable to upgrade port: 1
To report a bug, see <http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets>

However, I managed to ugrade Perl5.8

# port upgrade perl5.8
--->  Fetching perl5.8
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for perl5.8
--->  Extracting perl5.8
--->  Applying patches to perl5.8
--->  Configuring perl5.8
--->  Building perl5.8
--->  Staging perl5.8 into destroot
--->  Installing perl5.8 @5.8.9_4
--->  Deactivating perl5.8 @5.8.9_3
--->  Activating perl5.8 @5.8.9_4
--->  Cleaning perl5.8

Then I found out that there are quite a lot of Perl versions installed:

# port installed | grep perl
  perl5 @5.8.9_0
  perl5 @5.12.3_1+perl5_12
  perl5.12 @5.12.3_1 (active)
  perl5.8 @5.8.9_3
  perl5.8 @5.8.9_4 (active)

I worked around the problem as follows:

# port uninstall perl5 @5.8.9_0
--->  Uninstalling perl5 @5.8.9_0
# port uninstall   perl5.8 @5.8.9_3
--->  Uninstalling perl5.8 @5.8.9_3

After that, "port upgrade outdated" succeeded.

[macports.org@…]

Sorry, obviously I clicked "submit" twice.

Dupe of ticket #28830